Deportivo Saprissa

Deportivo Saprissa is the most popular Costa Rican football club, currently playing in the Primera División. The team is most notable for its policy of only fielding Costa Rican players, and its tremendous on-field success which lead to the Costa Rican press nicknaming them "El Monstruo Morado," the purple monster.

Deportivo Saprissa was founded July 16, 1935 by Roberto “Beto” Fernández in his shoe store in el barrio Los Angeles in San Jose. After a meeting with the football club's member Beto Fernandez decided to name his team after the man who sponsored their unifom don Ricardo Saprissa and with this announcement they entered the Costa Rican Third Division as Saprissa F.C.

In 1947 with Ricardo Saprissa's financial support and excellent coaching by Francisco "Pachico" Garcia, "los morados" the purple ones where able to win the Costa Rican Third Division Championship. In 1948 they accended to Costa Ricas Second Division and won the championship, thus propelling them to Costa Ricas premier soccer division. Deportivo Saprissa accended to the Costa Rica First Division on August 21, 1949 where it has remained for over 50 years.

In March of 1959 Deportivo Saprissa achieve recognition as being the first Latin American soccer team to travel around the world. They played 25 games in 22 nations in which they won 14 games, tied one, and lost 7. In Costa Rica it was named the team of the century as it has participated in 50 Costa Rican Championships, it also has the recognition of winning 6 consecutive Costa Rican National Champiosnhips between the years 1972-1977.

In 1937 Deportivo Saprissa adopted purple as the official colors of the team. It is said that the team adopted purple because their previous uniforms which where red shirts and blue shorts where mistakenly washed together. When the uniforms where ready to be picked up it was realized that the two colors blended on the uniform to become a solid puple uniform.

In 2002 the team was purchased by Mexican entrepeneour Jorge Vergara, also the owner of Mexican club Chivas de Guadalajara and the operator of Major League Soccer club C.D. Chivas USA. In 2005 Deportivo Saprissa beat Pumas de UNAM (Mexico) to become CONCACAF Club Champions thus earning a berth the FIFA's Club World Championship that will be held in December 2005 in Japan. Deportivo Saprissa has also ventured out by branding itself such as buying Fusion Tibas in Costa Rica's second division league and renaming them Saprissa, they also own a team in Costa Ricas womans soccer league, a basketball team in Costa Rica's Liga Superior de Balonsesto, and a cycling team. Deportivo Saprissa has become Costa Rica's most visible and marketable sports brand.

El Monstruo Morado

File:Monstrou Morado.jpg

The History of "El Monstruo Morado" (The Purple Monster) can be traced back to 1987 when the Costa Rican newspaper "EL DIARIO EXTRA" named the team during the Costa Rican clasico between Deportivo Saprissa and La Liga Deportiva Alajuelense. A reporter said due to the fans wearing purple and the grandstands at Estadio Ricardo Saprissa en Tibas shaking he felt he was in the presence of a purple monster. Deportivo Saprissa immideately adopted the moniker of "El Monstruo Morado" the purple Monster.

La Ultra Morada

File:Ultramorada.jpg

La Ultra Morada (Ultra Purple) is Deportivo Saprissa's official enthusiast group. The group was the first of its kind in Costa Rica being formed in 1995 when then Deportivo Saprissa President Enrique Artiñano brought to Costa Rica enthusiast from the Chilean league team Catolica, known as "Los Cruzados" to help build a likeminded enthusiast group for Saprissa. In the mid to late 1990's the Ultra began to develope the image of being a hooligan type enthusiast group when violence began to break out with other fan bases during games. Due to the negative atmospher and press Deportivo Saprissa stepped in to put order in a phenomenon they helped create. Recently the Ultra Morada has been taken under the wings of Deportivo Saprissa in order to fix it's image making it a more stable but devoted fan base.

Estadio Ricardo Saprissa en Tibas

File:Estadiosaprissa00.JPG

In 1955 Don Ricardo Saprissa embarked on a long search for a training site. Not only did he want this to be a training site but he wanted it to be a possible location for a permanent stadium that Deportivo Saprissa could call their own. Don Ricardo Saprissa had criterias for the location of the stadium, he wanted easy transportation access to the location and he also wanted it to be near the capital city of San Jose, but also at the same time he wanted to be close enough for the other provincial cities such as Alajuela, Cartago, and Heredia. On August 3rd, 1965 after 10 years of searching Don Ricardo Saprissa came to a final solution and agreed to buy land in San Juan de Tibas but construction would not begin until October 12, 1966. The location would be first built into a soccer field with bleachers and technically it would not be concidered a stadium. But on October 12, 1972 after 6 years of construction and upgrades Estadio Ricardo Saprissa was ignagurated with a match between Deportivo Saprissa and Comunicaciones of Honduras, the match ended in a 1 - 1 draw. In 2003 due to the long tropical rainy seasons Deportivo Saprissa applied and was granted by FIFA the right to change the field from natural grass to syntethic turf, becoming the only stadium in Latin America to display this type of turf. Estadio Ricardo Saprissa has also gained the national destinction of being the home field of Costa Ricas national matches. Estadio Ricardo Saprissa is the biggest soccer stadium in Costa Rica with a seating capacity of 23,112 and has an excellent view of the local mountains and downtown San Jose.

List of famous players

Note: The Players marked '(c)' have also coached the team

Notable Coaches

1950s - 1960s

Francisco García (Pachico)
Eduardo Viso Abella
Otto Pedro Bumbell
Carlos Peucelle
Alfredo Piedra (Chato)
Jozef Karel
José Ramos
Mario Cordero (Catato)

1970s

Mario Cordero (Catato)
Marvin Rodríguez
Geovanni Rodríguez

1980s

Marvin Rodríguez
Raúl Betancourt
Jozef Bouska
Odir Jaques

1990s

Alexándre Guimaraes
Carlos Linaris
Luis García (El Chiqui)
Carlos Watson
Julio César Cortés (El Pocho)
Jorge Mario Olguín

2000s to date

Manuel Keossián
Hernán Medford

Costa Rican National Championships

Deportivo Saprissa has won 23 Costa Rican National Championships

1952-53
1953-54
1957-58
1962-63
1964-65
1965-66
1967-68
1968-69
1969-70
1972-73
1973-74
1974-75
1975-76
1976-77
1977-78
1982-83
1988-89
1989-90
1993-94
1994-95
1997-98
1998-99
2003-04

International Tournament Championships

1970 CONCACAF Central American Champions
1972 Fraternidad Centroamericana Champions
1973 Fraternidad Centroamericana Champions
1978 Fraternidad Centroamericana Champions
1985 U.S. Camel Cup Champions
1993 CONCACAF Tournament Champions
1995 CONCACAF Tournament Champions
1998 Copa del Torneo Grandes de Centroamérica Champions
2003 UNCAF Cup Champions
2005 CONCACAF Club Champions (Representing North America in the FIFA Club World Championship)

External links